LAS CRUCES -- Gov. Susana Martinez admitted Thursday that she was preaching to the choir -- a standing-room-only crowd of more than 500 people attending the eighth annual International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight, at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum.

It was a pep talk of sorts, and Martinez urged commercial spaceflight industry leaders to keep going forward, keep going higher, in turning the fledgling industry into reality.

"This new industry, this new space age, is about expanding our horizons," said Martinez, the first New Mexico governor to speak at the symposium. "It is about creating new jobs, and infusing new scientists, new entrepreneurs."

Martinez promised that New Mexico will continue to add to its legacy as a pioneer of the aerospace industry. America's rocket and missile program began at White Sands Proving Grounds in 1945. Since then, many space programs have come to the state, including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Gemini, Apollo and space shuttle programs, the Delta Clipper and Clipper Graham reusable rocket program, and more recently NASA's Orion Mars program.

"It is my goal that New Mexico is branded as a place where someone with a good idea can make it happen," Martinez said.

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A panel of commercial space industry leaders said after Martinez's keynote address that the day of full-fledged commercial spaceflight, when everyday people fly regularly into space, is quickly approaching. Spaceport America, in Sierra County, and its anchor tenant, Virgin Galactic, have plans to begin commercial spaceflights as soon as next year.

Mark Sirangelo, corporate vice president of Sierra Nevada Corp. Space Systems, said, "In five years, we will have (space) vehicles that can regularly fly to the International Space Station, just like SpaceX has already done."

Garrett Reisman, commercial crew project manager for SpaceX, said: "There will (also) be vehicles to use for other purposes. The cost per seat today is in the range of $20 million. It's still going to be limited in the short term, where only the rich will be able to afford commercial spaceflight. But in the next 10-year time frame and beyond we need to drastically reduce launch costs where the everyday person can afford to fly."

Steve Ramirez may be reached at 575-541-5452; sramirez@lcsun-news.com; follow him on Twitter @SteveRamirez6

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